


Disorientation

by Just_A_Simple_Writer



Series: Whumptober2020 [2]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, Michael Shelley Deserved Better, Not Really Character Death, The Spiral Fear Domain (The Magnus Archives), Whumptober 2020, but i tagged it that way just to be safe, this does not have a happy ending folx
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:08:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27305356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_A_Simple_Writer/pseuds/Just_A_Simple_Writer
Summary: Whumptober 2020 Day Twenty Five - DisorientationWhat had Mrs. Robinson called it? The Twisted? The Twisting?Whatever it is, it needs to be stopped, and he’s the only one who can do it. She told him that, and she wouldn’t lie to him.He’s going to save the world, and then he’ll just … follow the map back out. Mrs. Robinson will be waiting for him when he gets out.
Series: Whumptober2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1993570
Kudos: 12





	Disorientation

**Author's Note:**

> well folx it seems i can write angst after all

It’s going to be fine. It’s going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine, because Mrs. Robinson said that it would, and she wouldn’t lie to him. She wouldn’t.

Despite that, Michael can’t help being a little afraid. The corridors are so … so _weird_ , and he feels a little sick even _trying_ to look at them.

The colours hurt his eyes and his head is swimming, and he’s struggling to look at the map in his hands.

It doesn’t make sense, but Mrs. Robinson said that he needed to find the middle of the maze and that the map would guide him there, and he trusts her. He just needs to keep a finger on where he is and try to keep his head.

That’s all. It’s just a maze. He’s been in hedge mazes before, and this can’t be that different.

It’s going to be fine.

He just needs to stop the…

What had Mrs. Robinson called it? The Twisted? The Twisting?

Whatever it is, it needs to be stopped, and he’s the only one who can do it. She told him that, and she _wouldn’t_ lie to him.

He’s going to save the world, and then he’ll just … follow the map back out. Mrs. Robinson will be waiting for him when he gets out.

It’s simple, really. He can do it, as long as he just manages to keep his head and doesn’t get lost in the twisting hallways.

It’s going to be _fine_.

He just … doesn’t feel very well. Rather dizzy, actually. It’s the hallways, all the shifting colours and shapes. He feels almost as though he’s been spinning around and around in circles for hours.

It’s hard to see where he’s going. He’s walked into the walls more than once, thinking that there was an entrance there, and he thinks he may have fallen through a mirror at some point.

He’s trying his best to follow the map that Mrs. Robinson gave him, but he might have taken a wrong turn at some point, and even if he _hasn’t_ , it’s so hard to tell where he is.

The mirrors are unnerving him the most. His reflection is stretched, distorted, and he doesn’t like looking at it. It gives him a headache, and it feels … wrong.

Everything feels wrong, really. Everything … hurts, although he isn’t sure he can tell what pain is. It just feels so _wrong_. His body, the floor, the walls, the mirrors, even the map in his hands, it all feels so horribly wrong.

He wants to cry, but he doesn’t. Just keeps his head up and keeps stumbling his way through the mind-bending passageways, trying to think about how pleased Mrs. Robinson will be when he gets back.

He doesn’t know how long he’s been here. He doesn’t know how long he’s _going_ to be here. He doesn’t even know where he is, despite the map.

He’s lost.

And yet he still keeps moving, pushing his way forward. At least if he’s moving he’s getting _somewhere_ , and maybe if he’s very, very lucky he’ll make it to the centre by accident.

Someone had once told him that if he ever gets lost in a maze that he should always go right, take right turn after right turn until he runs out of rights to take, and eventually he will get to the centre.

He tries that now, but it’s so hard to tell which direction the corridors take, even when he’s standing right at a crossroads. They’re impossible, looping through and over each other, and he isn’t sure that left and right still exist.

The corridors are getting to him. His reflection in the mirrors is only getting more distorted, and sometimes when he looks down he imagines for a moment that his real body looks like that, that horrible, stretched out figure.

He doesn’t like it.

His head is spinning so much that he’s struggling to even stay upright, and he thinks he might be in pain, though pain doesn’t really have much meaning here. It’s just colours and shapes and spirals.

So many spirals.

Still. He has to keep moving. He has to find the centre.

It’s going to be fine.

It’s all going to be fine.

It’s all going to be…

It’s all going…

It’s all…

It is and it is not.

Michael isn’t sure that anything has meaning anymore. 

**Author's Note:**

> also posted on my [tumblr](https://jaysworlds.tumblr.com/) as part of my whumptober project
> 
> if this hurts you i suggest you go read [Into The Unknowable](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27209851) because thats low-key a fix-it fic for this
> 
> (yea this end note is just two self-promos. what of it)


End file.
